Today, McConnell proposed a vote to majority leader Harry Reid on a bill that would allow President Barack Obama to lift the debt ceiling and avoid the fiscal cliff unless two-thirds of Congress voted to stop him. McConnell — who last year called a similar proposal a "last-choice option" — was trying to prove that the Democrats wouldn't agree to a vote on a bill to give the President that power because they can't muster enough votes for it to pass, thus weakening the President's stance on the fiscal cliff. Unfortunately for McConnell, Reid was like, "uh, okay," and called for an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.

McConnell, of course, had no intention of taking a vote, which is why he called for it in the first place. This led to the stunning sight of McConnell, one of the most powerful Republicans in Washington (nominally, anyway), filibustering his own bill and, in turn, himself.